Seat tracks are used in passenger aircraft to anchor passenger seats to the airframe of the aircraft. Conventional seat tracks typically have a “hat” design (a pair of outwardly-extending top flanges and a pair of outwardly-extending middle flanges which together form a top cord and a pair of outwardly-extending bottom flanges which form a bottom cord). The middle flanges are used to attach the track to the airframe.
Seat tracks are used in Passenger Aircraft to attach seats and interior furnishings (e.g. Lavs, galleys, closets). Conventional seat tracks typically have higher internal loads between supports so it is usually advantageous that the track be designed with minimum height at the supports and increased height between supports. Typical extrusion processes for seat track design usually prevent consideration of variable height designs due to the cost of the excess material and its removal. In addition, conventional seat tracks typically are designed as an open I or Pi cross section. These open sections are subject to instability related failures and usually require excess material to react these instability loads.
One of the limitations of the conventional aircraft seat tracks is that the top, middle and bottom flanges are thick to overcome load instability. Moreover, seat tracks are typically extruded. Extrusion is optimal for objects which have a constant or uniform cross-sectional geometry; because an optimized seat track would be thicker at the middle than at the ends of the track since loads are greater at the middle, fabrication of an optimized extruded track would require extensive machining of a large block of metal such as titanium.